The best backup software in 2018

Most people understand the fragility of digital data, often because of a painful experience where irreplaceable data was irretrievably lost.

The reliability of modern systems is far better than those that preceded them. But we’ve not yet reached the point where having a backup isn’t a measure you can safely ignore.

What to look for in a backup solution

Backup software falls into one of two basic categories; imaging or file based. If you want to secure a computer that it can be entirely rebuilt, with the OS and applications all installed, then you’ll need an imaging tool.

Alternatively, if all that concerns you is the data then a backup facility that targets and files you create or modify is the perfect weapon of choice.

Imaging tools have to secure the entire hard drive of a system, every byte, and so you’ll need either a hard drive (internal or external) or a network location with enough space to make a complete copy, and then hold any subsequent changes.

Conversely, file backups tend to be much smaller requiring less additional storage. And, with that reduced scale they can also be more easily secured to Cloud locations like Google Drive, OneDrive and their ilk.

Also, some software is designed to secure Cloud-stored data, allowing new files to be copied down to a PC or mobile device once they’re available online.

Choosing the right software is a process of deciding what type of backup you are interested in having and then making sure that you have a tool provides the right functionality.

Some of the better applications offer both imagining and file backups, should you prefer a belt-and-braces approach.

What’s especially important is that the backup happens when it is appropriate. That it doesn’t interfere with you using the system, and that in the event of a disaster the files are readily accessible.

You might also want to consider if you wish to secure more than one device the licensing scenario to achieve that. And, if files backed up are sensitive what encryption options are available to secure them from prying eyes.

Armed with this information you can choose the right strategy for you, and the appropriate backup application to execute that plan.

Acronis True Image

You can pick and choose the files and folders you want to backup if you don't need to back up the whole computer, and recovery options let you hand pick files if you don't need to recover everything too.

Customisable backup plans let you choose how often you want to back up fully, and let you backup the most important files more regularly.

Plus, the backup will run in the background to make sure that you're not disturbed while you're working.

The backup features end-to-end encryption to keep it safe and secure, and you can search for backed up files both on your machine and in the cloud to recover them at any time and any place.

The £34.99 Standard Package, which is a one-time purchase rather than a subscription you'll need to renew, includes backup and recovery to a local drive, external USB, shared folder or NAS device for one computer. If you'd like cloud backup options, you'll need the Advanced or Premium packages, which cost £34.99 or £69.99 respectively for a year.

These solutions all cover a single computer, and with Advanced and Premium including 250GB and 1TB of Cloud storage as part of these deals. Additional storage and additional computers are available to add to your package at an extra cost.

The current 2018 version (Build 10640), has added new features including ransomware protection, active disk cloning, along with Backup Statistics and Activity logs.

EaseUS Todo Backup Free

EaseUS Todo Backup Free is (as you may have guessed) a free backup service that offers step-by-step instructions to help you quickly and easily backup and recover your files.

You'll be able to carry out a full system backup, or file-level backup if you'd prefer. There are also options that allow you to secure only changes made since the last backup to save time and space, and there's a back-up scheduler that can be tailored to suit you.

You won't get cloud storage space included in the free version of EaseUS Todo Backup, but you can backup to CD/DVD, local hard drive, external drive, iSCSI device or network destination, or a combination of theses.

Above the Free release are the Home and Business versions that cost £29.99 and £39.99 respectively, and you can get a lifetime of upgrades on those products for £49.99 and £59.99. The major difference between each of these releases is not the backup functionality, but the speed at which it secures and recovers your files.

However, the Home release adds the technology to transfer a system to a different PC hardware and has special tools for Outlook email backup & recovery. Where the Business release can be run via command line scripts and also includes a centralised backup management tool to handle multiple licenced computers.

You can find out more and download the software from the EaseUS website.

For most home users the Free release does enough to secure their systems if they use any version of Windows from XP upwards. It even includes a specific disk closing mode for Windows 10 that's ideal if you wish to transfer from a hard drive to an SSD.

Paragon Backup & Recovery 16

Paragon's Backup & Recovery 16 offers a range of features that'll help keep your files safe. It can backup individual files or the entire system, so provides the complete package rather than focusing on just one aspect.

You'll get a Backup Job Wizard that will take care of all of the backup tasks you require on the schedule you set, and you can filter your backups to only store the files you really want to.

There's also a second 'Wizard' that can help you perform a single time or one-shot backup if that's all you need.

And if there isn't enough space in your backup destination, you can even split the backups into smaller portions to solve that problem.

The combination of defined scenario and ad-hoc backups is a very flexible one that fits well with those who use their computers in an especially dynamic way, who therefore need their software to be equally adaptable.

The other advantage of this tool over a free product like EaseUS Todo is raw speed. Securing the same 170GB test system to a second local hard drive took just 16 minutes with Paragon Backup & Recovery 16. That's about half what some other free tools could achieve.

It is also one of the few tools to support the backup of virtual disks, like those created by major hypervisor vendors VMDK, VHDX, VHD, pVHD (like VMware, Hyper-V, VirtualBox). And these backups can be mounted by virtual machines if you wish to investigate their contents quickly.

Paragon Backup & Recovery 16 supports Windows 7, 8/8.1 and 10, and can even secure Microsoft Bitlocker encrypted volumes, should you use that technology.

For the full list of features and more information about the application, visit Paragon's website.

Bvckup 2

Bvckup 2 is a fast and simple Windows backup utility that focuses on the type of file backup activities that users need the most often.

It's one of those applications that you don't need to think about after it's configured: it just works. It's fast and reliable with well-thought out features to help along the way.

Delta copying speeds up the backups when compared to full file copies, and greater reliability comes from intelligent error handling and detailed logging.

If Bvckup 2 can't copy a file, you are informed that the operation failed and hopefully given some indication as to why (security, etc.) it wasn't possible.

But what makes this tool special is how it utilises Windows shadow copy mode, allowing it to copy a file that's open for modification without causing a crash or exception. In theory, and it's not perfect, files that you are working on can be duplicated to a target location in real-time. That's perfect for anyone who is likely to experience a power cut or similar catastrophe.

Having live copies of recently changed files is a much better option than ones that are an hour or a day old given the amount of work that might have transpired in the meanwhile.

While it doesn't specifically support Cloud services, if those services are connected to the PC file structure (OneDrive, Google Drive, etc) then you can secure those folders locally or bakcup your working folders to the Cloud using Bvckup2.

What it doesn't do is secure a complete system so that it can be bare-metal restored, so it is best to use it in conjunction with another tool that can image your system.

Bvckup2 represents great value at $20 (approximately £15) for home users.

O&O AutoBackup

O&O offers a quick and simple AutoBackup application that will automatically synch and backup copies of your files and folders to a hard drive or USB stick.

The difference with this solution is that it is triggered by the insertion of the backup media, although you can also define a backup schedule if you wish to secure files in a very specific time frame. There is also a real-time mode that tracks changes to files in the highlighted folders and then copies them to the backup location.

O&O AutoBackup's backup on insertion is a neat trick, but the program is otherwise a little limited. However, it's very easy to use for those who aren't technically minded, as they won't easily be confused by the small number of options available.

For someone who captures data each day and wants to secure it at the end of their working day, the AutoBackup methodology works well. BUt it won't restore a PC that suffers catastrophic drive failure, as it can't secure a running operating system or boot partitions.

For that purpose, O&O has DiskImage 12, a system imaging tool that comes in Professional (£32.99), Workstation (£44) and Server (£199) versions. The Professional release has all of the functionality you'd expect from a comprehensive imaging tool, where the Workstation adds centralised networking, and Server is built to secure Server operating systems, not just Windows PC clients.

Bulk licensing deals for those companies that would like to secure multiple systems using these tools are available, reducing the individual cost per PC considerably.

O&O also has DiskRecovery 12 Professional (£65), a tool for recovering lost files and damaged partitions, along with specialist software for handling SSD migrations, cash mitigation and secure erasure of systems.

Backblaze

The concept behind Backblaze is simple; a Cloud-based secure service that keeps a copy of any files you create or store on your computer. What that doesn’t include is the operating system, applications or any temporary data that is created by active apps. But, it does copy away any documents, images, videos or other file types that are on your system, and it works with Windows and Mac OS X (and macOS) computers.

Should something unfortunate happen to your computer then you can download your files in zip document for free or for $99 they’ll put them on a 128GB USB drive for you. For those with more files than will fit on a USB stick, a 4TB hard drive can be bought for $189. The cost includes mailing those storage devices back to you, avoiding the time and bandwidth consuming act of downloading all those files.

The limitations of this solution are that it won’t rebuild your computer from scratch. And, if you have lots of files it will take some time and broadband bandwidth to secure it all, or restore it.

It’s also not suitable for those people that have bandwidth restricted or data capped connections, as securing a PC could easily see terabytes being transferred either in the initial sync or if you ever need to recover a system.

For those without broadband limits, a flat fee of $50 per year per computer for practically unlimited Cloud storage seems like a really good deal. Alternatively, Backblaze can also be purchased for a monthly fee for $5 or on a 24-month cycle for $95.

In addition to their personal storage solutions, Backblaze also has Business options that cost as little as $5 per month for each terabyte held. The Business model can also secure VMs and database structures, and not just conventional documents.

As good as the Backblaze solution is, it won’t do a bare-metal restore. Therefore, you should use it in conjunction with a system imaging tool, for complete peace of mind.

iDrive

Many Cloud backup services offer a trial period, usually 15 or 30 days. Instead IDrive gives you 5GB of free space on their system indefinitely, allowing you to experience if their product is the right one for you.

If you’ve more than 5GB of data to secure, and most people have, then IDrive Personal costs $52.12 in the first year, with a maximum of 2TB of online space made available to you.

Compared with some Cloud storage solutions that offer unlimited space that might seem restrictive, but a single IDrive account can secure multiple devices (PCs, Macs, iPhones, iPads and Android devices) without additional licensing.

For the home user that can keep the costs down dramatically, as a single account could secure the files from a whole family of hardware for modest annual or monthly bill.

Another bonus is that it also works in a very Apple Time Machine way, in that you can go back and restore a file at any point in its history. Ideally before it was corrupted or encrypted by malware. You can even recover files you’ve deleted, as long as it is within 30 days of the point where you put them in the trash.

What IDrive won’t do is secure the PC entirely, as it’s a file-based solution and not an imaging tool.

Therefore you’ll need to use this in conjunction with other software if you want to have a proper disaster recovery plan in place.

For users that have more than 2TB of data a 5TB package is available for $74.62, and there is also a slew of IDrive Business plans that can handle unlimited users, computers and servers starting at $74.62 for 250GB and going up to $2249.62 for 12.5TB of active storage.

Like with all Cloud backups, IDrive is suitable for those with high-speed unlimited bandwidth broadband, and those with capped connections should avoid this type of solution.

Comments

George Head - 17:19 12-03-2018

I don't know why everybody loves Acronis so much. The software SUCKS. I've tried to use it unsuccessfully for a few years and while it works for a while, it then stops. I back up to my network server (setting that up was an effin' pain) and it'll look for for a file that doesn't exist. I think it is referencing something that no longer exists (because the software deleted on schedule).

The support sucks, the software sucks, ... Are you guys getting paid for these reviews?

More importantly, do you actually USE the software, or do you just install it and look at the pretty interface?

Guest 1234512587 - 17:29 07-02-2018

I guess backing up all the files requires you to run backups every day/week/month, right? For that we use GS RichCopy Enterprise which has features like copying long file path names, copying NTFS file permissions and is not too costly!

jackgfdreacher - 13:09 05-12-2017

The Windows Easy Transfer tool is deprecated as of Windows 8.1 and now it can only import data from older Windows versions. As for the backup tool, they should've provided an utility that reads the files from the old one. Personally, I think File History is better because it gives you direct access to the files in the filesystem and the UI is rather simple and easy-to-use but it has its flaws, of course.

clarke.219 - 11:31 03-11-2017

I have also used this for a couple of years and find the lack of error reporting an issue. I use the 7 day routine with full and then incremental back up. When the 2 TB external disk gets full it sits there for days unless I check. It also does not overrite the older back up as it claims. Or I cant get it to do it. Wednesday it deleted my back up routine and was sitting there saying doing a full back up but nothing was happening till I checked this morning. I set off anew routine and it has sat there for an hour now just saying Queued! Checking back up disk nothing seems to be happening. I am looking for something different rather than upgrade to 2017/18 etc..

opaoma1 - 16:19 17-07-2017

Acronis has many fine features and, when running, does a fine job. For me it works great for a few weeks and then stops working for some reason. I have spent too many hours trying to fix the problems as they come up.

sachingk123 - 12:18 27-05-2017

I am the owner of a small company. I established my company about 3 years ago I didn’t think about something like a backup. You know unnecessary expindeture etc. Afterwards, when I had small crisis in office (power surge which fried all my hard disks) and I almost lose all documents I started think about backup. after looking much on the internet i found about GSRichcopy 360 enterpriseIt wasn’t so expensive, but now I can depend and stay care free in the knowledge that my entire business environment is protected with this cloud based backup solution. itoffers a quick and simple AutoBackup application that will automatically sync and backup copies of your files and folders to a hard drive or USB stick.

Alex Steiner - 18:17 10-05-2017

These options are all OK if you are looking for PC backup software. If you need an enterprise professional solution for business, you might want to look at software with complex backup management and remote monitoring capabilities. Look at the big names like ShadowProtect SPX, Veeam or Unitrends.

Alex Raitman - 10:34 03-05-2017

Argentum Backup which is over 15 years old now still works best for me. The fastest and easiest Windows backup program I ever tried. The size of the distributive package is 1.2MB only! I've been using it for over 10 years already. Very easy to set up and run. Also it is very fast. If you need full image backups you probably need to use Acronis, but I prefer to just back up specific files and folders that I know are very important to me.

AleksanderM - 14:29 27-04-2017

I am a small company owner. I established my company about 5 years ago I didn’t think about something like a backup. You know… needless cost etc. Afterwards, when I had small crisis in office (fire) and I almost lose all documents I started think about backup. Ultimately I bought Xopero Cloud (or sth like this). It wasn’t so expensive, but now I can sleep soundly in the knowledge that my entire business environment is protected 😃

aleksandra12 - 13:17 10-04-2017

Do u know maybe Xoperos solutions? I started use their product. Actually i am satisfied , but tell me if u know more backup solutions (for small company) or maybe you have some experience with Xopero too?

theaadityasinghania - 10:21 28-02-2017

In the context of above discussion I would like to provide one more name for the list above. The name is "GS RichCopy 360 Enterprise". I have used almost all the software named above. But the most friendly UI was provided by this software and the performance was allot better than any other software named above. Apart from providing the feature for the backup it also provides allot of different features which makes the backup task allot easier and user friendly. You must give it a try. Hope this will help.